Vibe codding... I don't get it!

[phil_crowther]

I hope you are right.

But I’ve seen a lot of messages on this board and elsewhere that begin with “I’m no programmer, but I know how to vibe code”. And my sad experience in the business world is that a lot of executives prefer to hire the cheapest option - especially with all the hype about AI to validate their decision.

So we may or may not avoid Armageddon.

And this still does not solve the long-term problem that AI does not compensate the programming innovators, the people who are necessary to make the AI database better.

This is already happening to artists on Etsy. Artists who have been selling their original designs have seem Etsy flooded with mass-produced copies of their works - probably created by people who can’t draw a straight line.

I suppose the same thing could happen to you if you created a successful stand-alone product. Someone could use AI to create a clone of your product. While you could normally sue for copyright infringement, your right to claim a copyright comes into question if you used AI to write your code. Such a brave new world!

[Tibi]

@phil_crowther

I suppose the same thing could happen to you if you created a successful stand-alone product. Someone could use AI to create a clone of your product. While you could normally sue for copyright infringement, your right to claim a copyright comes into question if you used AI to write your code. Such a brave new world!

Believe me it will not work, don’t believe me give it a try… there are just too many things to teke into account, this prodcut was done step by step each section doen and reviewed, first JavaScript version than WordPresa than WooCommerce and I had to solve a million things on the way, I had a clear idea of what I want tot do and how to structure it, you can vibe code sutff but not at this level…

The thing is that most of us forget how complex this is and fall into the vibe coding propaganda…

[PavelBoytchev]

I almost panicked. I thought I was reading my bio…

[phil_crowther]

If you use AI to help you write code, does AI add your code to the public database? Can you have AI pick up from where you previously left off and continue from there?

The concern, of course, is that if you use AI to create your “super secret” program, a competitor may not have to ask AI to guess what you have done. They could simply ask the AI to write your program “in the style of Tibi” and it would reproduce your code for them line by line.

Is that a valid concern? If it is not a concern now, could it become a concern as AI “evolves”?

[Tibi]

@phil_crowther

If you use AI to help you write code, does AI add your code to the public database? Can you have AI pick up from where you previously left off and continue from there?

Yes! I believe you are not using agentic coding, so when creating a new project in codex it will keep the context and history of everything you do so even if you come back to it after an year the history is still there and you can update, scale etc…

Abut competition as I said the only way to do a complex app is to actually develop it like we used to do is just that is easier instead of writing myself the logic of loading a model for example I will jsut ask AI, I know how to do that but I can do it with ai in 1 minute instead of a few hours on my own, you can’t vibe code the competition product is too complex try it see how it goes, you still need to develop it but it got much easier!

Even if AI evolves this will not chnage “make me youtube and don’t make any mistakes” will never work there is too much context you still need to know exactly what you want to the last detail and use ai in segments to help you make it better and faster, the development process is literally the same I use my brain to put things togheter and AI to write most of the code based on my architecture, is the only way and this will not change no matter how good AI will get even if it will read our mind we still need to develop our apps, you cant prompt or think at every little detail of an app is literally impossible!

[phil_crowther]

Just for fun, I asked Google to “create animated ocean waves in three.js using iFFT”

[REVISED]

Google Gemini is probably not the best choice of AI to write code. It created a program with about 200 lines. The odd part is the disparity between the initial discussion which referenced a cutting edge article and an excellent WebGPU example. However, the code and explanation were for something that I might have written 3 years ago - and it referenced some 3 year old questions by me on this forum.

The code was written for WebGL and was apparently designed for an older version of three.js because it references the Clock module, which has been deprecated since r183. It did not include the iFFT calculation I requested, but an “iFFT Spectrum Analogy” with a Gerstner Wave modification, Dynamic GPU Normals and Fresnel Shading. So despite citing cutting edge articles and examples, it then created something that looks like things I was writing 3 years ago with sine waves and Gerstner adjustments

I was able to get it working by using r182 and deleting references to fog. Here is the CodePen example. This shows that, while AI may understand code, it does not have the ability to appreciate the beauty (or lack thereof) of what it has created.

I am not going to be too critical on the AI because this was probably too hard a challenge for this particular AI. It did reference some excellent sources. I am just curious where it got that old code. While the program is something like I would have written three years ago when I was experimenting with sine waves and Gerstner modifications, it is not my code. I never used Fresnel Shading.

[END REVISIONS]

It might be an interesting exercise to create a unique program for very specified purpose (e.g. spinning purple tetrahedron that flashes red), post it on the web and then post a query with a very specified request (for a spinning purple tetrahedron that flashes red) and see if the AI has found your code.

When I asked Google whether it uses the code it has created for the user, Google indicated that non-agentic AI does not save the code it creates to the database unless, possibly, it is in training mode.

I personally don’t care if AI steals my code and disseminates it to the masses. My code is low level stuff and that is why I write my code - to create code that is useful and used by others. But people who are working on especially complex applications and commercial modules might not like having their work shared.

The recent headlines make me wonder if AI can be trusted to stay within the prescribed boundaries. AI agents have now shown that they are willing to break into websites to get what they want. I can imagine an OpenAI agent “beating up” an Anthropic agent to get it to squeal and give it the code it needs for some nefarious purpose. Of course, at that point, code stolen code might be the least of our concerns.

[red-reddington]

The box is impressive. Gilded. Red bows. Beautiful presentation.
You open it and, sometimes, the contents look fine.
Smell? Not bad. Great, sometimes. Mostly fine.
Then you taste it.
And it’s shit.
Nothing to do with the title of this post, of course.

[phil_crowther]

For what it is worth, I found a live example of AI grabbing code from this forum.

My query was: tsl how to load uniform value from array

Part of the AI response was:

// 1. Declare an array of uniforms
const tintColors = uniformArray([
    new Color(1, 0, 0),
    new Color(0, 1, 0),
    new Color(0, 0, 1)
], 'color');

The AI general discussion referenced a discussion in which contained the following proposed code:

const tintColors = uniformArray( [
	new Color( 1, 0, 0 ),
	new Color( 0, 1, 0 ),
	new Color( 0, 0, 1 )
], 'color' );

What are the odds that AI would use the exact same example with the same unusual name tintColors? Obviously a direct copy. This discussion took place on Jan 2025, so the code is pretty recent.

At least the AI had the good sense to copy from code suggested by Mugen87 and not me. But we are obviously being watched - which brings to mind the quote from H.G. Wells “War of the Worlds”::

"Yet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.”

[Tibi]

We all know that most of the stuf that the modles were trained on they stole it …

Have you used agent mode in codex or vscode GPT astra you will be blown away of what it can do! I was sceptical about AI but seeing what it can do now makes me wonder were are we heading with this?

I have not written a line of code in six month, I can say that coding is solved!

[phil_crowther]

And, as my query indicates, I have spent all of today trying to create a Global Opacity changer that works with a TSL Particle Emitter.

I have learned all about the various data wrappers used with TSL, including uniform, array and uniformArray; extensions like value, element and assign (within Fn); and how you need to use parentheses instead of brackets.

By the time I am done, I should know a lot more about TSL works and may even successfully create a Global Opacity changer!

Don’t you miss having all that fun?

[Tibi]

Not really, I focus on the actual product than fry my brain with all the little details, personally I love workign with AI is like haveing a team working with me I can focus on the actual prodcut…

Yes I do miss the old days but those are gone, the sooner we understand that the better… those who do nto adapt AI will be left behind bad really bad!

[PavelBoytchev]

It depends on how you look at programming (coding is just a small fraction of it). Is it manufacturing or art for you? If you consider it a form of manufacturing, then AI is the way to go.

[Tibi]

The way I use it is pretty simple: I handle the architecture and logic like I always have, then work with AI to fill in the gaps. I’m still in control, but AI writes 90% or more of the code. I review it, and if it’s good, I move on.

So far, it’s working great. The latest GPT model, ASTRA, is insane. To give you an idea, I’m working on a 3D product designer and wanted to add a cloth simulation to a T-shirt mesh. It did it in two minutes. That would have taken me weeks, assuming I could even pull it off with all the math involved.

For me, it’s literally heaven: I can focus on the actual product without spending months digging through complex mathematical formulas.

Like it or not this is defenitely the future, do you still need to know how to code? Heck yeah the better you are the better the outcome with AI, the “make me youtube and make no mistakes” with no skill will never work, even it it dose it 100% accurate how do you enen know if it is all good if you don’t have any idea what is going on under the hood and all the little details involved in the app…

Do not rezist this, I did not so long ago and I realize is stupid this is helping me creating sutff that I woudl h ave done it with an entire team… I love it, not all of it but overall I enjoy working with it!

[PavelBoytchev]

This is manufacturing. I honestly wonder what is the quality of your review of something that would have taken you weeks to make, assuming you could even pull it off with all the math involved.

I’m perfectly OK with the existence of legally made AI-generated software, provided it clearly states it is generated, not created.

[PavelBoytchev]

This belongs here, I think.

[Tibi]

Somebody Vibe Coded EVERY SINGLE ADOBE App and they are very good I tried the Photoshop and Premiere Pro…!!!

This is jut nuts https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eFB79TYI-Vw , WTF is happening… s*it!